To the President of Congress

It is still as problematical as ever, what is the political System of this Republick,
and indeed whether it has any System at all. They talk much and deliberate long, but
execute nothing. By the Violence with which they speak and write of each other, a
Stranger would think them ripe for a civil War.

In the Assembly of the States of Guelderland, held to consider of the Requisition
of the King of France of a negotiation of five millions of florins, under the warranty
of The Republick, the debates were sustained with great warmth. Some were for an Alliance
with France. The Baron de Nagel, Senechal of Zutphen, evaded the putting of the question
and said among other things “that he had rather acknowledge the Independence of the
Americans, than contract an Alliance with France.”

The Baron Vander Capellen de Marsch was for an Alliance with France and America too.
He observed, “that nothing being more natural, than to act in concert with the Enemies
of our Enemy, it was an Object of serious deliberation, to see if the Interest of
the Republick did not require to accept, without further tergiversation, the Invitations
and Offers of the Americans: that no Condescension for England could hinder Us at
present from uniting ourselves against a common Enemy, with a Nation so brave and
so virtuous; a { 59 } Nation, which, after our Example, owes its Liberty to its Valour, and even at this
moment is employed in defending itself from the Tyranny of the Enemy of the two Nations:
that consequently nothing could restrain Us from acknowledging the Independence of
this new Republick: that our Conduct differed very much from that held by our Ancestors,
who allied themselves with the Portuguese, as soon as they had shook off the Yoke
of the Spaniards: that there was no doubt that the said Alliances with the Enemies
of our Enemy would soon restrain his Fury, and operate a general Peace, advantageous
for Us.”2

As this is the first opinion given openly, which has been published, in favor of acknowledging
American Independence, it deserves to be recorded: but it will be long, very long
before the Republick will be unanimously of his Opinion.

[salute] I have the Honor to be, with the greatest Respect, Sir, your most obedient & most
humble Servant.

1. JA’s next letter to Congress is dated 4 Dec., below. In his Letterbook, however, is an unfinished letter dated 2 Nov. that was almost certainly intended for Congress LbC, Adams Papers. It was to consist of an English translation of William V's proposal to the States
General on 22 Oct. for the establishment of a corps of marines.

2. The source of the translation that JA quotes here is unknown. He included the same remarks, almost verbatim, in A Collection of State-Papers, 1782, p. 15–16. For a full translation of van der Capellen’s speech, see The Remembrancer . . . for the Year 1782, part 1, p. 101–104.

Docno: ADMS-06-12-02-0037

Author: Franklin, Benjamin

Recipient: Adams, John

Date: 1781-11-07

From Benjamin Franklin

[dateline] Passy, Novr. 7. 1781

[salute] Sir

I have been honoured with the following Letters from your Excellency during the last
Month, viz. of the 4th. 10th. 18th. 22d. 22d. 25th. 26th. and 27th. which I should
have answered sooner, but that I waited for a safe Opportunity, having reason to believe
that all your Letters to me by the post are opened, and apprehending the same of mine
to you. I send herewith the Covers and Seals of those Letters that you may judge whether
the Impression of your Seal is not as I suppose it to be a Counterfeit. I shall now
answer your Letters in the Order of their Dates.

Octr. 4th.1 I am pleased to find that you are of the same Opinion with me as to the proper Charges
in our Accounts.

Oct. 10. I have now received the Resolutions of Congress for ex• { 60 } changing Gen. Burgoyne against Mr. Laurens, and have sent it to England, tho’ without
much Hopes of Success; as I believe the Ministers there had rather at present have
the General’s Absence than his Company. They would keep Mr Laurens to hang him at
the Peace, if the war should end in their Favour; and they would have no Objection
to Americans Recalling and hanging Burgoyne.

I wonder at your being so long without hearing from Mr. Dana, and I am afraid some
Misfortune has happened to him.

I have communicated here your Observations relating to Masts, and make no doubt you
have recommended to Congress the taking effectual Measures on their part to prevent
that Michievous Commerce. If the English could be remov’d from Penobscot, another
of their means of Supply would be cut off.

I have already acquainted you that I will help you to pay your Acceptances, as far
as you have sent me an Account of them. I have even ordered a considerable Remittance
into the hands of Fizeau and Grand, to facilitate those Payments. But I must repeat
my Request to you not to accept any Bills with an Expectation of my Paying them, that
are drawn after the End of March last; and I farther beg you would accept no more
of the old ones drawn on Mr. Laurens, without first acquainting me with the Number
or Value, and knowing from me whether I can provide for the Payment. If the Loan so
long expected from Holland does at length take place, as I am now told it is likely
to do, my Embarras occasioned by all these Demands will I hope be remov’d by it. If
not I must scuffle and shift as I can. God help us all.

Octr. 18. I know nothing of Beer but from Mr. Coffyn’s Recommendation. I am afraid
he is one of those poor helpless Bodies that God throws into the World to try its
Charity. I had been told that the Dutch had sent to borrow such Workmen from France.
I recommended it to send the escap’d Prisoners arriving at Dunkirk rather to Amsterdam
than to Paris, because I think there arrive as many American Vessels in Holland as
in France, wherein they might return home; and there is not one of those Prisoners
who does put us to 8 or 10 Louis Expence in his Land Journey first to Paris and then
to the Sea Ports, when he might go to Holland in the Track Schuyts for perhaps 1 or
2. I am sensible that you have not as you say any Public Money in your hands; and
having accepted Bills for more than is in mine, my Case in that respect does not differ
from yours. These poor unfortunate Men must however be relieved; unnecessary Expence
in doing it being avoided we can relieve more of { 61 } them. We cannot do for them all we wish; we shall do the best we can. I think it quite
right you should have Money always at command for that purpose, and am of Opinion
the small Sum obtained by the Loan at Messrs. de Neufville’s will be very properly
apply’d in assisting the Prisoners.2 "I therefore give my Advice frankly to use it in that Service. And when that is expended,
you should undoubtedly be supply’d with more, and will have the Credit you desire
at Messrs. Fizeau & Grand’s, as long as we have any.

Octr. 22. By accepting a Mediation I apprehend no more is meant, than consenting to
hear and consider what a common Friend may propose towards accommodating a Difference.
A Mediator is not a Judge or Arbitrator: When Arbitrators are chosen, there is commonly
an Engagement to abide by their Determination. But no such Engagement is made with
respect to a Mediator. Mediations are however subject to this Hazard, that the Mediator
piqu’d against the party who rejects his Advice, joins with the other to compel his
Acceptance of it. This perhaps was a little the case lately, in the Mediation of Spain
between France and England.

I have just learnt by a Letter from Come. Gillon that Capt. Jackson has left his Ship,
and is returning to France.3 I think with you that it will be proper he should proceed immediately to Holland
to take care of the Goods there. But I own I have not so much Confidence in his prudent
Conduct, as to wish the Business left entirely to his Discretion. I still feel the
Mischief and Absurdity of his buying Goods under the Notion of only filling a Vancancy
left in a loaded Ship, and doing this to such excess as to make two Ships more necessary
to receive them. I had a Reluctance to any concern with Gillon; I was urg’d into it
by Col. Laurens, on the Considerations that the 10,000£ Sterling’s worth he wanted
to dispose of were such as the Army needed, were already shipt, and the Conveyance
likely to be a safe one, &c. I consented to pay for those Goods; and for as much more
as might be wanted to fill a remaining Vacancy in the Ship, not exeeding the Value
of 5,000£ more. I propos’d that these Payments should be made on your Drafts, that
your Excellency might have Occasion to inspect the Conduct of the Business, and be
some check upon it. I wish I had impowered you or requested your Care more explicitly:
I do not think the least Blame lies on you. Capt Jackson too might be ignorant of
the Bulk of the Goods till they were assembled: But methinks Messrs. Neufville might
have known it, and would have advis’d against so enormous a Purchase, if augmenting
the Commissions, and the Project { 62 } of Freighting their own Ships had not blinded their Eyes. You will judge that it must
be a monstrous Surprize to me, to have an Account brought against me of 50,000£ instead
of 5,000. I agreed however to accept the Bills, on Mr. Jackson’s Representation that
the Goods were bought and shipt, that the relanding and returning or selling them
would make a Talk and discredit us; that they were such only as were absolutely necessary,
&ca. and I accepted his Drafts instead of yours, as he said the Ship only waited his
Return to sail, and the obtaining your Signature would occasion a Delay of 8 or 10
Days. Thus I was drawn in at the broad End of the Horn, and must squeeze out at the
narrow End as well as I can. I find myself confoundedly pinch’d, but I deserve it
in some degree for my Facility and Credulity. At present I am not sure of Money either
to buy the Ships or pay their Freight as proposed in yours of the 27th. and therefore
cannot engage to do either. When Capt Jackson shall arrive in Holland, your Excellency
will be so good as to advise him, and I hope he will take your Advice. I should apprehend
it is now too late to go North about: and to send two slow-sailing Dutch Ships down
the Channel, to run the Gantlet thro’ all the Frigates and Privateers, seems to me
nearly the same thing as to consign them directly to some Port in England or Jersey.
It was not to give you Trouble, or to avoid it myself, that I refer’d Messrs. Neufville
to you for Advice, but really because I thought you understood such Business better
than myself, were on the Spot, and equally concern’d for the Advantage of our Constituents.
To me it seemed, that the Vessels having contracted to go with their Cargos to America,
ought not to have staid behind on pretence of a Right to more Freight because the
Convoying Ship had sail’d without them. They might have protested, and have gone without
Convoy: If they had a Right to more Freight I suppose they would have recovered it;
and if taken, have a Claim to some Indemnification. I did not understand the Compelling
a new Agreement by stopping our Goods. I thought it ungenerous in Messrs. de Neufville
as well as unjust. The Regularity or Irregularity of their Proceedings being at least
as I imagin’d Points of Maritime Law or Custom I had that additional Reason for Deference
to your Judgement.

22 Octr.4 I accepted your Draft of the 22 for 2000 Crowns in Favour of Fizeau & Grand, and
it will be duly paid.

25th. The Letter from Dr. Waterhouse, of which you were so kind as to send me a Copy,
is coolly and sensibly written, and has an Effect in lessening the Force of what is
written against Gillon by { 63 } Messrs. Jackson and Searle. On the whole, I hardly know as yet what to think of the
Matter. If Gillon really produc’d to Jackson the 10,000£ worth of Goods, why did he
keep back from him the Bills of Exchange that were to pay for them, and with which
Gillon might have paid his Debts; And if he could not produce them, why did Jackson
keep the Bills, carry them to Sea, and not return them to me? When we see him perhaps
he may explain this. At present I am in the dark. He promised me a fuller Letter by
the first Post,5 but I have not receiv’d it. Com. Gillon writes me, that Jackson and Searle are parted;
that the former (with your Son and some other of the Passengers) is gone to France
in an American Privateer, and the latter in the Ariel. I hope soon to hear of their
safe Arrival, particularly on the Child’s and your Account: Young Cooper6 is gone to Geneva. Perhaps you may think of sending your Son there for the Winter;
in which case if I can be of any Use to you, command me.

Octr 26. The Reason of my thinking we could not depend on receiving any more Money
here applicable to the Support of Congress Ministers, is given in the same Letter
of Augt. 6. to which yours of Octr 26th. is an Answer; viz. “That what Aids are hereafter
granted will probably be transmitted by the Government directly to America.” Should
that be the Case, and no Money be put into my Hands to be at my Disposal, what must
I do with regard to the Salaries of Ministers? I cannot go to Versailles with a sneaking
Petition requesting Money for my Subsistence, for the Subsistence of Mr. Adams, of
Mr. Jay, and of Mr. Dana. I believe none of the Gentlemen would like my taking such
a Step, and I think the Congress would be asham’d of it. It was therefore I thought
it right to give the earliest Notice of what I apprehended might happen, that we might
all join in representing it to Congress, in order to obtain the necessary Remittances.
You may depend that as long as I have in my Hands disposable Money belonging to Congress
I shall never refuse to obey their Orders in paying your Salary; and when I have no
such Money I hope you will consider my not paying as the Effect of an Impossibility,
and not as you express it a Refusal. The Congress should certainly either supply their foreign Ministers, or find such
as can and will serve them gratis, or not send any at all. I hope you have written
on this Subject; and tho’ I do not yet clearly see how our Money Affairs will wind
up, I shall accept your Draft for another Quarter whenever you please to make it.

Octr 27th. I daily expect the Return of Major Jackson, and think, as I have said above,
the Season over for sending those Goods be• { 64 } fore Winter, therefore if I understood such Affairs, I should defer a little the giving
any Orders about the Ships freighted, or the Goods he has put on board them. I did
as you observe stop the Money Col. Laurens was sending over in Gillon’s Ship, because
I saw I should want it to support the Credit of Congress in Paying their Bills. I
think you might have done the same to pay your Acceptances if I had not engag’d for
them: And I believe you have an equal Right with me to take care of the Congress Property
vested in those Goods, as their Minister; and being on the Spot can better judge from
Circumstances of the Steps proper to be taken. I therefore request you would yourself
give such Orders as you shall find necessary, and think most for the public Interest,
remembring that I cannot undertake either to buy the Ships or pay the Freight. Perhaps
it may be best to sell the whole, and purchase with the Money the same kind of Goods
in France, which cannot but be more agreable to Government here; and probably they
would arrive as soon.

I hope the coming Winter will thoroughly establish your Health. With great Esteem
& Respect I have the Honour to be, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble
Servant